According to a report by online blog WABetaInfo, WhatsApp has added new privacy features that change who can see a user’s ‘last seen’ and ‘online’ status. The new changes will prevent unknown contacts, whom WhatsApp users have never had a conversation with, from seeing their ‘last seen’ or ‘online’ status.
WABetaInfo received an email from WhatsApp customer support, confirming the new changes. The email states that WhatsApp made these privacy changes to improve the privacy and security of their users. They also said that this will not change anything for a user’s friends, family, and businesses which they know or have previously messaged.
The new privacy features are not available to toggle in the settings, but have come into effect automatically.
The report says that WhatsApp could have seen the need to make this change as there are many apps on the App Store and Play Store which log the ‘last seen’ or ‘online’ status of a user, thus enabling unknown contacts to track their online activity. This will now no longer be possible.
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An earlier report had indicated that WhatsApp may be working on a revamp of their share menu, which will let users edit recipients before they send out media. Users can add other recipients, even members from another group, while sending an image, video, audio, or document. This functionality will be similar to the share menu seen on apps like Instagram and Twitter.
The feature is still in development, and thus could be altered before seeing eventual release on iOS or Android smartphones. It may be available to a select few WhatsApp beta users.